


tiny dreams

by tempestshakes



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beth Lives, F/M, Short & Sweet, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 14:05:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9610730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestshakes/pseuds/tempestshakes
Summary: “A baby…Jesus, Daryl, what made you think of that?”





	

**•**  

He’s guarding over Beth and Judith while they pick dandelions outside the city walls when the wild thought comes to him. Daryl sees how Beth stretches out her arm to gesture at a large insect resting on a broken tree branch and whisper some sort of knowledge into the soft shell of Judy’s ear. Judith bites her lips deep in consideration, and Beth smiles serenely. The sky is a cornflower blue, the color of Beth’s eyes, and it reminds him of the day he took her for the first time, outside and dusty, and absolutely one the best moments of his long ass life. 

With feet casually dragging through and against the sparse grass, he meanders towards the girls, allowing himself the luxury of feeling the sun’s mild heat and tracing the curve of Beth’s back. But only for a few moments. His gaze swings out over towards the fringe of woods, waiting for any unwanted visitors, one hand resting carefully on his hunting knife. 

“Daryl taught me,” he hears Beth say.

Judith clambers up from the ground to face him. Her hands settle on her hips in what she must think is a formidable stance. “You taught her _that?”_

Daryl’s mind immediately goes to all _those_ things he taught Beth (many things she taught him, and more than anything they learned together like two uninhibited explorers), but that couldn’t be it. If Beth catches the deep flush running up his neck, she doesn’t tease, just answers, “Yup. Showed me which bugs were the tastiest and how to cook ‘em up quick.” 

“Yuck!” cried Judith, and maybe now’s not the time to inform her she’d been eating insects in her meals since her teeth grew in. “Daryl is disgustin’.”

“Should smell me when I come back from cullin’ walkers.”

“Oh, I have,” Judith says with her nose wrinkled, and Beth laughs as she rises to her feet next to the girl. Her hands fall on Judith’s knobby, sun-freckled shoulders and squeeze. Judith reaches to tangle her fingers with Beth’s and tips her head back to add, “Do you like him when he smells bad?”

Beth laughs again, nodding, and says, “I like him all the time.” Daryl feels his posture straighten as Judith regards him again like he’s a stranger, and he smiles a bit, just for her. 

“Boys are so damn nasty,” Judith finally mutters. 

Beth makes a disapproving humming noise the same second Daryl says, “Watch your mouth, Jude, or the Sheriff will wash it.”

Judith grins wide, top gap teeth and a missing canine. “You wouldn’t dare, Daryl Dixon.”

“He just might,” Beth whispers next to her ear, “you’re bein’ a meanie to him,” and then Beth nips Judith’s ear, and the girl yelps and leaps away laughing.

Judith grabs his hand, her small one dwarfed by his meaty, stained palms, and tugs him back towards their town. He senses Beth coming up behind him and doesn’t startle when her arms curl around his middle, her feet awkwardly knocking into his boots so that they almost stumble into the dust. Beth releases him and strides up by his side, her eyes alert and quickly taking in their surroundings before turning to him and stamping a messy kiss on his jaw line. 

And he sees it again. The wistful way she watches his hand tugged by Judith’s, watches how Judy slows and does a ballerina twirl beneath his arm, watches how the little girl seems to grow by the hour these days. Beth inhales sharply, shakes her head, and none of it goes unnoticed by Daryl. 

 

** • **

 

Later that day, they’re shelling peas at the dining room table outside the kitchen where Carol and Glenn are getting dinner ready together. Glenn’s relaying a story for Carol and Maggie—who’s sneaking bits of fresh bread as she sits on the counter—so they’re too occupied to overhear what Daryl decides to ask Beth. 

He mumbles out a question. 

“What?” she asks because sometimes he just can’t use his damn words clear enough. 

Daryl pauses to gather himself, then casually points to the living room with the end of pea shell. With the open floor plan, Beth can plainly see where he’s gesturing; their neighbors’ toddlers, Sara and Tatum, are playing doctor with Judy on the rug-clad hardwood floor. 

“Do ya…ever…uh, you know?”

She gazes at him steadily before her lovely lower lip trembles, and Daryl almost hates himself at that moment. She turns her head to hide the slip of a few tears and sniffles. And giggles. It’s a sad sound. 

“I…yeah, I did. Back before all this…and then,” Beth huffs and giggles again, “when I got you.” 

A breath rattles out of his chest and it almost hurts.

“But, not anymore. I don’t wanna have kids, Daryl. I don’t wanna bring them into this sort of world. Maybe…one day. If things are better, and I’m still young enough, and you’re still around to…you know.”

“Me?”

“Who else, dummy?”

“Figure Eugene might spare some spunk.”

“Ugh, god, Daryl!” Her nose crinkles up as she shoves his shoulder. 

Bumping her back, he continues with a smirk, “Or Carl when he’s grown…”

“No.”

Her face is serious. “Just dunno know why you chose me sometimes.”

“I feel the same way.”

He desn't know what to say. 

“I do! You’re kind, and handsome, and strong. Goodness, you’d be such a good daddy, a natural,” her eyelashes flutter as pink splotches appear on her neck, and Daryl can’t help the slight swell of his cock, heavy in his jeans, “And you make me feel…so much. All the time. I’m around you and my heart is _full_.”

“I—“ and he doesn’t have any more to say. He plays with the naked peas in their bowl and thinks about whether the kitchen crew is ready to blanch them. He can hear Maggie sassing someone past the doorframe. Sara shrieks in the other room, and both he and Beth turn to see Judith blowing raspberries on her “patient’s” belly. Tatum seems to have fallen asleep on the armchair next to the house’s pet cat, Ralph, and he doesn’t stir at his sister’s laughter. 

Beth huffs a short laugh. “A baby…Jesus, Daryl, what made you think of that?”

Scraping is palm against his beard, Daryl reckons, “Just you and kids make sense. You’re always so good with them and the way you look at Judy sometimes…needed to know if you were missing somethin’.”

“Nothin’.”

“Be honest, Greene.”

“I ain’t missin’ nothin’. Look at me, old man. The Beth Greene that dreamed of gettin’ married? Gettin’ pregnant? Having a baby? She’s gone. And I’m a little sad about that, that her wishes never came true, but…the Beth Greene that’s here now. Me. I’m happy every day I get to see Maggie, and Glenn, and Rick, Michonne, Judy, Carol, Carl, Sasha…everyone. And _you_.”

She’s got him trapped in that earnest stare of hers, and the spell is only broken when they hear Glenn drop a pan and swear loudly. Judith’s head pops up like a prairie dog, mouth open and amused, and makes eye contact with Daryl and Beth as if to say, _He swore!_

“Rhee!” Daryl barks. 

“Sorry, guys!” Glenn says sticking his head into the room sheepishly. “Burned my hand.” He points to the living room and yells, “You didn’t hear those words from me, kiddos!” 

Judith runs barefoot to the kitchen to no doubt give Glenn a hard time, and Tatum’s unfortunately back awake now looking cranky, face scrunchy and red. Daryl pushes back his chair and strides over to the little boy. Tatum makes unhappy cooing sounds but raises his arms up to be lifted, and Daryl scoops him right up, easy and light. 

He spends the next fifteen minutes walking the kid back to sleep, feeling calm in the hum of a busy household and with the warmth of hot breath against his neck. The boy smells like milk, dirt, and lavender, and Daryl doesn’t remember how he’s always known how to hold a child.

 

** • **

 

When it’s morning, light trickles in through and between the thin cotton curtains. Beth’s awake before he is and she’s humming softly to herself while neatly plaiting her hair, the covers bunched at her waist, flat stomach displayed. She’s beautiful. 

He means it when he says, “I wanna give you a baby.”

She blinks. “You serious?” There are still crusty bits in the corner of those cornflower, summer sky blue eyes. He wants to give her everything, and he trusts that she’s right about him. She’s so beautiful. 

“Yeah, whenever you’re ready. Whenever ya think it’s the time…I wanna put a baby inside you.”

She bites her lip. “Daryl, I didn’t think—“

He interrupts her to say, “I…I’ll be ready. Whenever you’re ready. Yeah?” 

Her hands fall to her belly, and Beth smiles to herself, “Yeah.”

**•**


End file.
